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immigration laws
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Naturalization Act of 1790
It provided the first rules to be followed by the United States in the granting of national citizenship other than by birth. The law limited naturalization to aliens who were “free white citizens”: leaving out large groups like slaves and Asian immigrants -
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immigration timeline
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alien and sedation act
required 14 years of residency before citizenship and provided for the deportation of dangerous aliens. Changed to five year residency in 1800 -
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
It ends the Mexican-American War and extends citizenship to the around 80,000 Mexicans living in Texas, California, and the American Southwest -
California Gold Rush
The discovery of gold in Californa brought a large rush of immigrants from around the world. One of the largest groups to arrive in California was the Chinese. 20,000 Chinese miners arrived in California in 1852 alone. -
The Homestead Act
It provided free plots of up to 160 acres of western land to settlers who agreed to develop and live on it for at least five years, there by spurring an influx of immigrants from overpopulated countries in Europe seeking land of their own -
Burlingame Treaty
established a formal relations between the United States and China. The treaty permitted free migration between the two countries and guaranteed the political and religious rights of such immigrants. The United States desired free migration because it sought to maintain the flow of Chinese labor, which was necessary for the construction of the trans-continental railroads. -
The 14th amendment
African Americans gained citizenship with -
The Naturalization Act of 1870
expands citizenship to both whites and African-Americans, though Asians are still excluded. -
Act of 1875
The first restrictive federal immigration statute, which barred the entry of prostitutes and convicts. -
Chinese Exclusion Act
First federal immigration law suspended Chinese immigration for 10 years and kept Chinese in U.S. from citizenship. Convicts, lunatics, and others unable to care for themselves from entering. Head tax placed on immigrants. -
The Mexican Revolution
The Mexican revolution began, as a result of Mexico’s industrialization and the subsequent impoverishment of Mexico’s rural poor. The violence and turmoil resulted in large scale migration of many Mexicans into the United States. Many wanted to stay only as long as necessary to improve their economic situations and then to return to Mexico. Also, the United States government repatriated many of these immigrants when their labor was no longer necessary -
Dillingham Commission
He decided that immigration of southern and eastern Europeans posed a very serious threat to American society and culture. The commission thus recommended a greatly reduced number of immigrants and suggested enacting a reading and writing test to help keep undesired immigrants out of the U.S. -
Immigration Act of 1917
This act passed by Congress over President Wilson’s veto.This act, among other things, required a literacy test for immigrants and also barred all laborers from Asia -
Immigration Quota system.
It was the first quota to be enforced for all nationalities. The quotas were an attempt by the government to maintain the United States cultural profile to that of Northern Europeans The quotas ensured that the level of permitted from a certain nationality corresponded to the population of that nationality living in the United States in 1910. -
Hungarian Revolution
The violent Soviet response to the Hungarian Revolution led to a humanitarian crisis in which 200,000 refugees fled the violence. Around 40,000 were admitted into the United States -
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965
It Major landmark in U.S. immigration law. Its most important contribution was that it eliminated the national origins quotas. It set a maximum annual level of immigration at 300,000 visas and placed a per-country limit for immigrants from the Eastern Hemisphere at 20,000. No per-country limits were placed on immigrants from the Western Hemisphere. -
Refugee Act
Refugee Act brought the United States into compliance with its international obligations in regards to refugees, specifically the 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. It defined refugees as an individual unable or unwilling to return to his or her country based on a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political affiliation -
Immigration Act of 1990
This act created a lottery program, the diversity lottery, for citizens of countries where the U.S. did not usually grant large numbers of visas. The act retained family reunification as the major entry path while more than doubling employment-related immigration. The law also provided for the admission of immigrations from under-represented countries to increase the diversity of the immigrant flow -
Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996
limited the availability of habeas corpus relief to those held in detention and restricted judicial review. Also limited relief for immigrants convicted of crimes. Furthermore,It required the detention of non-citizens arrested for a number of crimes pending their removal proceedings. The immigration provisions of AEDPA were superseded by IIRIRA -
Senate bill
This bill would have had a large-scale impact It would have provided a legal path to citizenship for many undocumented immigrants residing in the United States. It also would have included the Dream Act, which would grant immigration status for undocumented immigrant minors who either attend college or serve in the military. The bill did not pas
